Crackberry users go cold turkey

US BlackBerry users had time to get on with their lives on Friday morning when a service problem stopped their mobile devices receiving emails.

The problem was at Research In Motion which makes the corporate pacifiers - dubbed crackberries because of their addictiveness. Three networks were hit: Cingular, Nextel, and T-Mobile. Verizon and Sprint customers had no problems. Some Canadian networks suffered a slowdown, according to CBC.

Service was restored by Friday lunchtime and RIM refused to comment on how many customers complained. RIM notched up three million subscribers in early May. ®